The Great Northwest

After an enjoyable interlude at the beach resort-hippie university town of Santa Cruz, I eventually flew ( AMTRAK?-long story ) to the drizzle of Portland, Oregon, as my gracious host in California, Heather "The Oracle" DeShon needed to complete her Ph.D (riding rollercoasters and sitting on the beach not being a requirement of such degrees even at nontraditional universities like UCSC). I think I have an analog for Santa Cruz in New Zealand - New Plymouth, Taranaki... as always, more later.

Apart from the gently descending sky waters, Portland offers hills, America's largest bookstore, red brick pavements, public transport, Chinatown, sushi, the largest and smallest city parks in the U. S., a river, and the arts district known as the Pearl. Being here for only one day, I hit Powell's City of Books (picked up Edward Tufte's influential Visual Explanation) and will now see Kiwi Niki Caro's much hyped film Whale Rider , before riding business class Amtrak to Seattle tonight.

I reckon I should be able to find a Starbucks there...

Uncaptioned Grand Canyon images can be found
here

Posted from Portland Borders Books and Music